Facebook is forcing users to upload selfies to prove they are who they claim to be

'We’ll check it and then permanently delete it from our servers', the site says

A 3D-printed Facebook like button is seen in front of the Facebook logo, in this illustration taken October 25, 2017 (REUTERS/Dado Ruvic)

Facebook has started asking users to upload pictures of their faces, in order to access their accounts.

It appears to be a new kind of CAPTCHA, and is being used by the social network to verify people’s identities.

Facebook will lock you out of your account if you decide not to upload an image or upload an image it considers to be “invalid”, users say.

A screenshot posted to Twitter this week shows a message reading: “Please upload a photo of yourself that clearly shows your face. We’ll check it and then permanently delete it from our servers.”

A Facebook spokesperson told Wired that the new system is in place to “help us catch suspicious activity at various points of interaction on the site, including creating an account, sending Friend requests, setting up ads payments, and creating or editing ads.”

While the feature doesn’t appear to have reached all users yet, it was first spotted by people in April.

“Facebook won't let me login, asks for me to upload picture of myself, then says picture is ‘invalid’”, wrote Reddit user lostinthemasses on 7 April.

Other people commenting on the post said they’d come across the same thing, with several saying Facebook had started forcing them to upload a new picture every time they tried to login.

“EVERYTIME I try to log in it ask me for a photo [of] myself and I have to wait DAYS to get into it. I spent more time waiting to be allowed to log in then actually in my account,” wrote nwhiteshook.

Another user, called immorano, said, “Believe it or not, every time I log in facebook ask me to upload a front face image of myself and deactivate my account. 12 hs later they activate it , it goes just fine for half an hour and they deactivate it again and ask me for another … picture.”

Earlier this month, the site unveiled an anti-revenge porn system that asks users to upload naked pictures of themselves.

“As part of our continued efforts to better detect and remove content that violates our community standards, we’re using image matching technology to prevent non-consensual intimate images from being shared on Facebook, Instagram, Facebook Groups and Messenger,” said Antigone Davis, Facebook’s head of global safety.